Hostage
by NewMutant2
Summary: When a mission goes wrong, one is held hostage, and more secrets from Adam's past are revealed.
1. Chapter 1

Shalimar, Lexa, and Brennan sprinted out of the invisible helix and hid behind thick bushes at the nature preservation center that had been closed for several hours. They were chasing genetic terrorists who were once employed at Geneomex.

"Lexa, does the Dominion have any information about these guys?" Brennan whispered.

"No." she whispered back. "All they know is that they were employed at Geneomex, they have plenty of rescourses, and they're dangerous. They want to steal some of Geneomex's work for whatever reason. The Dominion tapped into a conversation saying that they want to collect a weapon they hid when they learned they were being chased."

"Well," Shalimar looked over, "it seems like the Dominion _does_ know a bit about them."

"What kind of weapon is this?" Brennan asked. Lexa shrugged and gave him one of her _I have no idea_ looks.

A white van drove into the vacant parking lot and stopped. Five people, masked and dressed in all black, exited and opened the trunk. Invisible, Brennan and Lexa crept around for a better look, while Shalimar snuck around towards the front.

Shalimar, with her feline charictaristics, was silent and undetected. She could see all five of the people standing close, probably whispering, but Shalimar could not hear them, so she concluded that they were silent. She crouched down and saw Brennan and Lexa's body heat.

In the back, Brennan and Lexa had a clear view of the empty trunk._They're probably putting the weapon here, _Brennan thought to himself. He seperated from Lexa and snuck closer so he could hear what they were saying.

"Where are they?" one of them said.

"Maybe the fake communication didn't work." Another man suggested.

Brennan was alarmed. More people comming! He moved slightly closer so he could hear better, and he looked back at Lexa. She was invisible, or too well hidden for Brennan to see. He saw a thick bush that would hide him better and was closer to the trunk, so he crept towards it. Unfortunately, Brennan was a big burly man, and several twigs broke with a loud snap. Brennan looked up. He could see Shalimar with a look of shock on her face about a hundred feet away. The mysterious men turned around, and saw Brennan. He stood up and electrocuted two of the closest to him. Shalimar cried out "Brennan, look out!" as he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down and a dart was sticking out of his tee shirt. The world started spinning as Brennan blacked out and was caught by two hands that he was fairly sure were not Shalimar's or Lexa's.


	2. Chapter 2

In Sanctuary, Shalimar and Lexa ran in, deeply concerned. Jesse, after looking at their faces, could immediately tell. "Where's Brennan?" He asked.

Lexa quickly became her usual calm, collected, almost cold self. "They took him." she stated bluntly.

"We have to do something!" Shalimar almost sobbed. "We've got to find him!"

"Shal, we have no idea where to look." Lexa protested. "I'll see if I can get in contact with the Dominion and see what's going on." She walked out to talk to her mysterious contact within the Dominion.

Shalimar started to feel tears in her eyes, and with all the strength she had, she fought them back. "They hit him with a stun dart and shoved him into the trunk of their van. They must have taken his comlink off." She pulled Brennan's comlink out of her pocket and put it on the desk for Jesse to see.

At this point, Lexa came back. "The Dominion said they didn't contact us." she said. "The people who have Brennan must have made a fake communication to lead us here."

Jesse nodded. "So they could capture one of us."

"But why?" Shalimar asked.

"Ransom probably. They must want something of ours." Lexa said.

"Or something of Adam's." Jesse was worried. They all knew Adam had his secrets, but this one could cost Brennan's life.

* * *

Brennan woke up ina dark dingy room with little lighting and cement walls. He figured it was a store room or a basement. He was tightly bound to a chair and gagged. He was soaked to the skin. He tried to get loose, but he couldn't. A man entered whom Brennan recognized as the man who shot him with the stun dart gun. He stood in front of Brennan for a minute, and then he finally spoke.

"It's no use trying to escape, Mr. Mulwray." He said. "The door from the basement is locked and guarded. We know you cannot use your powers when you are wet, so we will be visiting you regularly to check on you and make sure you are soaked. But don't worry, you will be able to go back to Mutant X as long as your friends cooperate and give me what I want."


	3. Chapter 3

Brennan could only sit in the rigid chair in silence as his captors were conversing several feet away. He could not make out what they were saying, but he could tell that it was an important conversation, and it distracted them from him. _Now's my chance to escape_ he thought. He looked around for something sharp that could cut through the rope. There were no corners, pipes, knives, cut glass, or anything sharp within twenty feet of him. Even the chair didn't have any corners, everything was round.

After nearly an hour, his captors finished their conversation and three of them went upstairs, while the other two watched Brennan. Brennan was so intent on trying to escape that he somehow did not notice the two men watching his every move. He decided to try to move the chair over to the stairs, where he could cut the ropes on the corners. Moving was not too difficult for him. His feet were not tied to the chair, but they were tied together. He tried to stand, the ropes around his arms and the back of the chair as well as the ropes around his waist helped him support the chair. He inched closer and closer to his freedom.

"I don't think that's going to work." The leader of the group said with a calm smugness that reminded Brennan of Ekhart. Brennan turned, saw the two men watching him, and sat down again with an agitated grunt. The two men moved him over to his original location. "I guess we'll have to have a guard at all times, or a security camera." The leader smirked.

The three men who had left returned with a video camera, a tripod ,a long distance transceiver, and a bucket full of water, half of which was immediately dumped on Brennan's head, drenching him all over. The tripod was placed on the floor about ten feet in front of Brennan, and the camera was placed on the tripod facing him. One man distributed face masks, and everyone put them on. The transceiver, which looked like it had been somehow modified, was turned on and connected to the camera and a television, which was placed next to the camera facing Brennan. All five men stood behind or beside Brennan, making the hostage the focus of the group.

"We know about the specific frequencies used by Mutant X so your communications cannot be listened to. That is how we were able to impersonate the Dominion to order you here, where we were ready. Now we can send a message with our demands to your people, and in exhange, they get you." The leader said as he nonverbally ordered one of his accomplices to turn on the camera and the television.

At Sanctuary, Jesse was trying to find the identities of Brennan's captors using the vague descriptions given to him from Shalimar and Lexa, who were standing right behind him in case they recognized anyone.

"So what exactly did the Dominion say they were going to do about this situation?" Jesse turned to Lexa with a curious look on his face.

Lexa was agitated. "They said they would try to find them, and we should keep them aprised of what's happening.

As Jesse turned back to his search, the computer screen went black, then a message came up. It read: _Transmission being received._ On the screen appeared four masked men. Directly in front of two, and in between to others, was Brennan, bound, gagged, and drenched. Their leader spoke up. "Hello, Mutant X. You may call me Mason." He looked at the way they shuddered after hearing the name of the man they hated most. He smiled. "Yes, I intentionally decided to have you know me by the same name as Mr. Ekhart, my former employer."

Shalimar, Lexa, and Jesse realized that man worked for Genomex. Their past had come back to haunt them.

Mason continued. "As you can see, we have Brennan Mulwray with us, and he seems okay. Why doesn't he tell you himself?"

Taking his time, he untied the gag and removed it from Brennan's mouth. "Brennan, are you okay?" Shalimar asked.

Brennan nodded. "I'm alright."

"Well, thank you for your input. That will be all for now." Mason gagged Brennan as he was before and turned to the camera to talk to Mutant X. "He will be returned to you safe and sound as long as you give me exactly what I want."


	4. Chapter 4

"What do you want then?" Shalimar was furious.

Mason stepped forward. "We at Genomex had discovered Adam's work on cloning before he left us, but when he left, his work was gone. We're sure he took it with him. When Genomex was destroyed, the five of us stayed together in hopes of finding it one day. We're sure you have it at your Sanctuary."

"We don't know anything about his cloning project." Jesse protested. "We can't give you something we can't find."

"Well, actually," Lexa began, "I think I may know something about that. When I was at Genomex, I heared Adam talking about his cloning research, and he said that he was really getting somewhere with it."

Mason smirked. "SO, Mutant X isn't as unified as we all thought it was! This is hilarious! How well does the cloning work?"

Lexa shrugged. "He said the most he could clone was a rat's foot. He doesn't think it can handle anythig much bigger than a human liver. It was mostly used for replacement organs."

Shalimar was surprised at how much Lexa knew. "How do you know so much?"

"I told you I knew Adam before joining you."

Mason was growing impatient. "I want you to meet me at the same place where we captured Brennan, and we can make the trade there in two hours." Thetransmission cut out.

Jesse and Shalimar turned to Lexa. "What?" she said, "I told you I knew Adam before I joined you guys. I thought you knew about the cloning. I just didn't think that's what they wanted."

Jesse seemend satisfied with her explanation. "Okay." he started to brainstorm. "Do you think we should give them what they want?"

"Does it look like we have much of a choice?" Lexa asked. "We kinda have to if we don't want Brennan to die."

"It's that or we give them the wrong data." Jesse suggested.

"They're probably going to test it before giving him up." Shalimar spoke up.

"They're probably going to test it on Brennan." Lexa didn't really have to say that, but that was what she did.

"What if we give it to them, then kick their asses andget Brennan?" Shalimar suggested.

Lexa shook her head. "Too dangerous. They're probably going to use him as a liability. If we don't do what they want, they kill him."

Shalimar nodded. "Okay, I think just giving it to them sounds like the best idea."

Jesse and Lexa agreed. Lexa got on the computer and began opening Adam's research files.

"These are all password protected." Jesse was discouraged. "You don't happen to know the password Lexa?"

Lexa nodded. "All of his passwords are either Lexa, Ashlock, or feral, unless he really doesn't want us to see."

Jesse typed in "Lexa", and the computer displayed his eperimental research. It did not take Jesse long to find the file titled "Cloning" and store it onto an empty disc. The three of them ran to the helix and flew away.

* * *

The white van pulled into the parking lot in the exact same location where they had shoved Brennan into it only hours earlier. Without turning it off, Mason and one of his colleagues got out and met Shalimar alone. "Where's Brennan?" she demanded. 

"In the van, we'll return him once you give me that disk." Mason had noticed the disk containing Adam's cloning research in Shalimar's hand.

Invisible, Lexa crept around Shalimar to the van, to try to get Brennan out. She looked through the windows of the van, but they were tinted, so she couldn't see anything. She would have to open the van herself. She became visible, and before she could do anything, she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, and she blacked out and fell on the tar.

Shalimar held out the disk, and Mason snatched it from her fingers. "Now wait here while we get Brennan for you." Mason and his companion headed towards the van, and opened the door. Shalimar was not worried because she knew Lexa could stop them if they tried to get away. They got into the van, shut the doors, and they drove off. The vehicle moving out of the way revealed Lexa unconsious on the tar. Shalimar picked up Lexa and ran into the helix. Jesse got it up and in the air, trying to track the van. They searched the area, but there were three white vans, they had no way of telling which van was Mason's. Discouraged, frustrated, and downright pissed, they went back to sanctuary to try to contact Mason again.


	5. Chapter 5

Mason, his accomplice who came out with him, and another accomplice driving the van were the only people in the vehicle. Brennan Mulwray was at their hideout. The van pulled into the driveway of a suburban neighborhood. Mason and his colleagues got out of the van, entered the house, and made their way to the basement. On the stairs, Mason heard a splash and a muffled groan.Mason ordered for the camera, television, and transceiver to be turned on to contact Sanctuary. Surely Mutant X will be waiting for him to offer some sort of explanation. All he had to do was tell another lie, and they were all set. Mutant X was much too trusting.

* * *

Shalimar stormed into Sanctuary to contact Mason so she could find out what the hell is going on. _How dare they do that!_ she thought. _They promised to return Brennan! _Lexa and Jesse came out of the Helix and entered Sanctuary as Shalimar turned on the computer. "They better contact us!" she nearly shouted. 

The familiar image of the five crimminals and their hostageflickered onto the screen. Jesse and Lexa were prepared to hold Shalimar back to prevent her from attacking the image. They had noticed how protective and territorial the feral had become over Brennan, and this situation was practically killing her.

"Why didn't you give us Brennan like you promised? We kept to our end of the deal." Shalimar demanded.

"We need to make sure this cloning stuff works." Mason replied. "Once we test it on Brennan, we will return him, if he survives that is. We'll be talking to you again when we've finished."

Shalimar seemed slightly flustered. "Wait!" she protested.

Lexa realized that Shalimar was trying to stall for time. She discretely started to trace the signal to see where the transmission was comming from. The process would take a few minutes,so they would have tostall as much as they could.If they are successful at stalling them,they can find out why these people want the cloning research. Kill two birds with one stone.

"Why do you want Adam's cloning research?" Shalimar implored.

Mason smiled. He held out a vial with a few drops of red liquid inside. "Do you know what this is?"

"Is it blood?" Lexa always had a morbid outlook on things, but she was probably right.

"Very good. Do you know whose blood this is? This is from Mason Ekhart. If we have enough DNA to clone with this much blood, we can bring him back."

Brennan's eyes widened, and he let out a surprised grunt. Lexa's jaw dropped. Shalimar couldn't believe her ears. Jesse leaned on the table to stop himself from collapsing. All of them were thinking the same thing. _Ekhart!_

Mason put the vial safely in his poket. "We'll take some blood from Brennan and try to make a clone. If it works, we will return him and create Ekhart. If it does not work, Brennan dies." The transmission cut out.

Lexa checked her signal trace. "Damn, I couldn't get it. They must be blocking my trace."

Jesse sighed. "We have to get Brennan back this time. We can't wait for them to give him back."

"They said they were going to kill him if the cloning test on him didn't work." said Shalimar.

Lexa, the pecimist, interrupted. "How can we get him back if we have no clue where the hell he is?"

"Well," Jesse said, "After they took him, they were able to contact us within two hours. So it has to be somewhat close. Probably about a hundred mile radius."

"Oh that's helpfull." Lexa said sarcastically.

"Maybe it is." Jesse said. "It's possible that the cloning process creates some energy field that we can detect from the helix."

"It may." Lexa said. Shalimar gave her a quizzical look.

"From what I can remember, Adam used carbon and some other chemicals because I guess humans are made up of carbon or something like that. Then I think he used high electricity voltage, which would be very easy to see. But since Brennan already has massive amounts of electricity in him, either he'll be less unstable, it will overload, or it will create more than one clone."

* * *

Once Mason had fixed most of the electrical appliances in the house to electrocute the chemical mixture to be combined with Brennan's blood sample, he picked up a knife and headed towards his hostage. 


	6. Chapter 6

Mason took the drops of blood collected from Brennan and put them on a petri dish and added his chemical mixture. He readied his rigged appliances and activated them. Sparks flew everywhere and the light was blinding.

When all of the chaos ceased minutes later, an exact replica of Brennan lay unconsious on the floor. The clone was hauled up and carried into a corner. "Dump water on him, he's probably a mutant." Mason ordered. Someone grabbed the bucket of water and dumped it onto the clone. "Now," Mason said smugly, "we wait until he wakes up to see if he has the same memories as Brennan."

* * *

At Sanctuary, all Jesse, Shalimar, and Lexa could do was sit and wait. Shalimar was on edge. Lexa was calm as usual. Jesse was anxious. 

"You should get some sleep." he said to Shalimar and Lexa. "It's late. I'll stay here and wait for Mason to contact us."

Shalimar shook her head. "I can't sleep."

* * *

Mason and all five of his accomplices had large rifles pointed at the unconsious clone laying on the floor. The real Brennan was trying to get untied, but his efforts were futile. When the clone finally woke up, the six men had their guns pointed at him. Mason stepped forward. "If you move, we will shoot you. Now, what is your name?"

"Brennan Mulwray, and I still want to get the hell out of here!" the clone replied.

"What is the name of your team?"

"I'm not telling."

Mason turned to the others. "It appears that he is the same Brennan Mulwray as the original. Kill him."

All six men aimed and fired. The clone lay on the floor, dead. Brennan was very disturbed watching himself die. One of Mason's men turned over to the original Brennan, but Mason stopped him. "We don't want to kill him yet; I'm still not sure exactly what to do with him. If Ekhart comes back to us and is able to recreate the subdermal governers, Brennan could be used as our power source. I'm told he can supply power to a small city for nearly a week. Surely he'll be able to supply enough power to power our building. Dispose of the clone." Mason walked over to look at the circuit breaker. "It was damaged during the process. It'll take me an hour to repair."

* * *

Jesse was looking around the computers for any security devices Adam may have created that would help them find Brennan. None of them were any useful. Hardware lock, file self destruct, none of them would help. As he looked at the list, one of them gave him hope. Software trackers. The disc containing the cloning data could have a tracking device. "Shalimar, Lexa!" he called out. When they came in, he filled them in on the software trackers. He opened the file, and the list of trackable software was displayed. The cloning disc was one of the first displayed. Jesse activated the tracking device, and he was able to find the disc. He located the place where Brennan was. It was a small house in a suburban neighborhood. The three ran to the helix and it flew away. 


	7. Chapter 7

In the helix, Shalimar, Jesse, and Lexa were making a plan to get Brennan.

"I'll stay here in the helix while you two go out." Lexa volunteered. "If anyone gets out I can follow them."

Shalimar nodded. "Okay. Jess, where do you think is the best place for us to enter?"

"Through the back. They probably either have him out in the open where they can keep an eye on him or in a locked room where he can't escape."

The helix, invisible, landed in the backyard of the adress given to them by the tracking device. Luckily for them the backyard was large and empty. Jesse and Shalimar snuck out and to the back wall. Jesse phased the two of them and they were in an empty room. Phasing through walls, they searched the only floor room by room, but each room was empty. The last room they searched had six cots with sheets, each with a suitcase underneath it.

"They're here." Shalimar whispered.

Jesse and Shalimar phased their way to the kitchen, where there were two doors. One was a closet. The other led to the cellar. The two phased through the door and stood silently on the top step, tense.

* * *

Lexa kept her eyes on the only vehicle in the driveway, the white van. The house was over on the side of the lot, so even from the backyard, Lexa could see the driveway.

* * *

Jesse and Shalimar weren't sure what to do, so they stood where they were and listened. They heard Brennan's captors talking about getting the circuit breaker fixed, and cloning Ekhart. Another replied he was almost done, and that the others should prepare the blood and chemical mixture. Pouring of liquid could be heard. 

"Now Jess." Shalimar whispered. "We can't let them bring Ekhart back."

Jesse exhaled, and phased. Shalimar and Jesse went through the stairs and were face to face with six men. Two of them were armed. They both fired their weapons. Jesse massed. He let go of Shalimar and each of them, with their mutant abilities helping them, attacked the armed men. Within a minute they had at least taken their guns.But they were outnumbered.

"Lexa" Jesse said into his comlink. "Come to the cellar through the kitchen door! Quick.

Shalimar tried to make her way over to Brennan to untie him, but she was getting blocked and driven away from him. With one gigantic effort, she ran between two of them and shoved them away. She reached Brennan and untied his wrists. By then she was being advanced upon, so she had to leave him and fight.


	8. Chapter 8

The rope around Brennan's hands was loose, so he was able to slip out of them with little difficulty. He pulled the gag out of his mouth and untied his legs as quickly as he could. When he finished, he got up and tackled one of the men fighting Shalimar. He was not dry enough to use his powers, but he still had enough strength to fight. He grabbed the chair and hit Mason with it, sending him hurling to the ground.

Lexa ran down the cellar stairs and saw all of the action. Unlike the others, she could incapacitate them all without physical combat. She saw five people dressed in black, two of them were on the ground unconsious. She quickly shot each one. "I thought there were six of them." she commented.

Brennan looked around. "There were! One of them is gone." They sprinted up the stairs. Jesse phased the back wall, and they ran to the helix. Lexa stayed behind to make sure the unconsious men would not escape. Outside, the white van could be seen turning out of the driveway and speeding down the road. The helix, withJesse flying, lifted and flew in persuit.

It took only five minutes for them to catch up to the van. The van turned into a vacant street, the perfect opportunity for it to be stopped. Shalimar jumped out of the helix and onto the hood of the van. This startled the driver, and the van swerved out of control and into a building. The driver stumbled out of the damaged car. Shalimar grabbed him by the collar and hurled him onto the ground. Jesse landed the helix, and he and Brennan ran out and surrounded the driver.

"What the hell is going on?" Shalimar demanded. "Do you really have enough of Ekhart to clone him?"

"Yes, we were about to do itwhen you showed up."

"How long have you been planning this?" Jesse asked.

The man scoweled. "Years. When we found out you were contacting the dominion, we found the perfect ruse to get you to us. We impersonated your dominion contact and told you to come to our trap. Brennan just happened to be the most convenient at the time to capture."

Brennan whispered so quietly only Shalimar could hear, "they know about our contact with the dominion, maybe we should hand him over to them." Shalimar nodded. Brennan electrocuted the man, and he was immediately unconsious. "He won't wake up for several hours."

Shalimar tossed him into the helix, and it flew away. In the air, Jesse contacted Lexa on her comlink. He told her to destroy Ekhart's blood sample.

When they arrived at the hideout house, they landed and went to the cellar. They left the unconsious man in the helix because hey would not wake up for a long time. When they arrived in the cellar, they saw Lexa standing over the four unconsious crimminals.

"Lexa, since they know about the dominion," Brennan asked, "do you think we should hand these guys over to them. I'm sure they'll want to remain secret."

Lexa nodded. "They'll definitely want to stay hidden. They can stay in a dominion prison. My contact can meet us somewhere. Let's take them to the helix."

* * *

Back at Sanctuary, Lexa was contacting the dominion. Brennan, Jesse, and Shalimar had locked their prisoners in a corridor with bars that had once been used when Lexa was being controlled.

"How long was I gone?" Brennan asked.

Shalimar looked at her watch. "It's three in the morning now. You got captured a little after noon I think."

"Seemed longer than that."

Lexa returned to the group. "Okay, the dominionwants to take the prisoners now. They're really freaked out by this." Lexa went to open the gates, but she noticed that one had a huge hole in it, and two of the prisoners were missing.

Jesse was alarmed. "Did you search them for any weapons or anyting?"

Lexa cringed. "Oh shit! I didn't think of that! What if they took the helix!" she and Shalimar ran to the hangar. They returned with relieved looks on their faces. "The helix is still here." said Shalimar. "They're somewhere in Sanctuary. We have to find them.

Jesse lowered a backup gate to cover the hole. He phased through it and searched the prisoners. He removed a high powered laser cutter from each of them, and he phased outside the prison. He, Lexa, Shalimar, and Brennan, although weary from the ordeal, split up and searched Sanctuary.


	9. Chapter 9

Brennan cautiously crept around Sanctuary, secretly hoping to not run into the crimminals sneaking around his home. He looked in his room, Shalimar's, and Lexa's, not finding anyone. Jesse's room was also empty.

* * *

Shalimar looked around the gym. She heard footsteps around her. She crouched low, preparing to attack. The figure moved closer, but could not be seen. Lexa became visible right next to her.

"Oh my god." Shalimar whispered. "It's just you."

Lexa nodded. "There's no one here, let's go."

The two women stepped out of the gym and were face to face with one of the prowlers. Shalimar quickly punched him and he fell to the floor unconsious. Shalimar picked him up and deposited him in their prison.

* * *

Jesse was quietly stalking one of the crimminals who was on his way to the hanger to get the helix.

"Hey," he whispered as loudly as he dared, "come to the hangar, I found one of them."

"Shal and I caught the other." he heard Lexa reply.

Jesse waited patiently. Deciding he could wait no further, he massed and lunged at the prowler. Jesse grabbed him and pinned his arms. Lexa ran into view. Jesse massed, and Lexa shot the man he was holding.

Shalimar and Brennan walked over. "Now what?" Brennan asked. "Do we hand them over to the Dominion now?"

Lexa nodded. "They're probably at the rondez-vous spot now. They were disturbed as hell! I guess this must be one of the first if not the first time something like this has ever happened to them."

"Let's get going then." Brennan said.

* * *

An abandoned warehouse was not the place Mutant X would have taken five prisoners who had the ability to bring back their arch enemy. But the Dominion believed it was the perfect place. Lexa was right; her mysterious contact with the Dominion was impatiently waiting for them.

"This is an outrage!" he nearly shouted. "Thank you for bringing them to us."

"Do you think that's all of them?" Brennan asked.

"We will interrogate them. We have ways to obtain information."

The crimminals were put in the Dominion's van and it drove away to wherever they hid from the world. As they headed back to the helix, Brennan could not help wondering if there were others out there, or if there was more of Ekhart's blood to be cloned.


End file.
